Press Release

January 16, 2024

For Immediate Release

Chou Wen-chung’s centennial and legacy is celebrated in a concert on March 21, 2024 at Miller Theatre

Influential Chinese-born composer's legacy includes the composers he helped bring to the US: Tan Dun, Zhou Long, Chen Yi, and Bright Sheng

Performed by Continuum, Joel Sachs conductor

The Chinese-born composer Chou Wen-chung (1923–2019) had an enormous influence on concert music in America and was responsible for bringing over the next generation of musicians from China, including Pulitzer Prize winner Zhou Long, Chen Yi and Bright Sheng. He studied with and worked closely with Edgar Varèse. On March 21, 2024 at 7:30 pm Continuum performs a special concert celebrating the composer's centennial and legacy at Columbia University's Miller Theatre. The concert is presented by Spiralis Music Trust in cooperation with the Music Department at Columbia University. Details and ticket links will be announced soon.

The program, performed by the contemporary ensemble Continuum led by Joel Sachs, displays Chou’s special ability to blend Eastern and Western styles, techniques and tropes in his compositions. A highlight of the concert is the American premiere of In the Mode of Shang for chamber orchestra. Program details are below.  

The event is part of an ongoing endeavor to maintain and extend Chou Wen-chung’s legacy. Other components include commissioned works in Chou's name in China and the United States, a lecture series at the 21st Century China Center at UCSD, the Center for US-China Arts Exchange at Columbia University, and more.

Photo credit (top to bottom): Chou Wen-chung by Kimberly Wang, Joel Sachs by Nan Melville

The Spiralis music Trust, in cooperation with the Music Department at Columbia University present

March 21, 2024 at 7:30 pm

Celebrating Chou Wen-chung’s

Centennial and his Legacy

Miller Theatre at Columbia University

(2960 Broadway at W 116 St, New York, NY)

Ticket info TBA

CONTINUUM^®

Joel Sachs, conductor and piano

Chamber orchestra featuring long-time Continuum players Renée Jolles, violin; Stephanie Griffin, viola; Kristina Reiko Cooper, cello; Emily Duncan, flute (Continuum debut); and Moran Katz, clarinet with additional instrumentalists

PROGRAM

All selections by Chou Wen-chung (1923 – 2019)

In the Mode of Shang (1956) (US Premiere) 

Chamber Orchestra 

The Willows are New (1957)

Piano 

Yu Ko (Fisherman’s Song) (1965)

Ensemble for Violin, Winds, Piano and Percussion 

Twilight Colors (2007)

Double trio for woodwinds and strings

Ode to Eternal Pine (2009)

Chamber Ensemble

The Chinese-born composer Chou Wen-chung (1923 - 2019) came to the United States in 1946. He studied with Nicholas Slonimsky at the New England Conservatory of Music, and later moved to New York City where Edgard Varèse became his teacher and mentor. In the early 1950’s, he did graduate work at Columbia University under Otto Luening, and studied with Bohuslav Martinu and musicologist Paul Henry Lang. This began a long career (1964 to 1991) at Columbia where he developed an internationally renowned composition program and, for 13 years, was in charge of academic affairs for all the creative arts.

In 1978, Chou founded the Center for United States-China Arts Exchange which has collaborated with specialists and institutions from East/Southeast Asia on projects, such as the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan (1990); an arts education program in China spanning 15 years; and an ongoing project, begun in 1990, for cultural conservation and development in Yunnan, one of the most culturally diverse regions in the world. 

Chou was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an honorary member of the International Society for Contemporary Music and Asian Composers League, and recipient of the Officier des Arts et Lettres.

Winner of the Siemens international prize and four ASCAP awards for Adventuresome Programming, New-York-based CONTINUUM has been a major presence in the new music world since it was founded in 1966.

Continuum has performed across the United States, including at the Kennedy Center and the Library of Congress; toured Europe dozens of times, and made numerous trips to Asia and Latin America.

CBS-TV, National Public Radio, the Voice of America, and European networks have broadcast Continuum events. The ensemble has recorded nearly two dozen titles and in 2024 records music by Roberto Sierra and Ursula Mamlok. Its concert programs embrace the entire range of music from 20th-century classics such as Ives, Joplin and Webern, to today's composers from all over the world.

Continuum is a registered service mark of The Performers' Committee, Inc.